Colonial Bank

Joan Wilms, who has 21 years' experience in underwriting, consumer lending and customer service, has been appointed private banking officer for Colonial Bank's Volusia County offices. She has an associate's degree in business administration from Daytona Beach Community College and is approved as a delegated underwriter by the Florida Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs. Working at the company's Daytona Beach office, Wilms will be responsible for serving the bank's private customers and expanding Colonial's private client base.

Lead: A federal judge in Virginia sentenced former Colonial Bank executive Catherine "Cathie" Kissick of Orlando on Friday to eight years in prison for her role in a nearly $3 billion mortgage fraud scheme. It was a lesser sentence for the 50-year-old Kissick, who had faced up to 30 years in prison after she pleaded guilty in March to participating in a fraud scheme led by executives of Ocala-based Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. A federal judge in Virginia on Friday sentenced former Colonial Bank executive Catherine "Cathie" Kissick of Orlando to eight years in prison for her role in a nearly $3 billion mortgage-fraud scheme.

The Colonial Bank on U.S. Highway 192 was robbed Monday morning.A man entered the bank at 1412 W. Vine St. around 10:30 a.m. and asked a teller for coin wrappers. When the teller brought the wrappers back to the counter, the man handed the teller a white piece of paper that stated, ''Put all your money on the counter or I'll kill you,'' according to the Kissimmee Police Department.The suspect took money given to him by the teller and left the bank on foot.He is described as a white male in his late 30s to early 40s. He has brown hair and is clean-shaven.

Harold Sherman, shopping-center owner, can be found most mornings at about 11 o'clock slicing pork roast and red bell peppers. That's because he operates a small sandwich shop in Sherman's Plaza, the 18,000-square-foot strip center that he owns near West Oaks Mall in Ocoee. Actually, he operates two businesses in his nine-store retail center: the Sandwich Shoppe, which he opened about a year ago, and Mr. Good Deals, a new enterprise that sells closeout merchandise at a discount.

Sid Cash, a longtime local banker, is quitting as Seminole County executive for Colonial Bank to open a Maitland branch for Century National Bank. Michael Sheffey, president of Century National, said the new branch, on U.S. Highway 17-92, would be open by late May. It is the second office for Century, which opened in November. Cash's last day at Colonial is Thursday.

Colonial BancGroup confirmed Friday that it is being investigated by the Justice Department for possible mortgage-related criminal violations and by the Securities and Exchange Commission for suspect accounting practices tied to its request for federal bailout money. The Montgomery, Ala.-based holding company for Colonial Bank also acknowledged that Alabama state banking regulators are seeking authority to place the troubled regional bank into federal receivership. A hearing in the matter is set for Wednesday with the Alabama State Department of Banking.

Colonial Bank of Lake County has appointed John F. Veldhuis to serve on the bank's local board of directors. Veldhuis is the executive vice president and general manager of Lake Region Packing Association in Tavares. Colonial Bank operates seven offices in Lake County, and an additional office is scheduled to open a branch in the Summerfield area later this year.PUBLIC RELATIONSAMERICAN WHIRLPOOL Bath has appointed Advertising Communications Inc. in Mount Dora its first public relations-only account.

Four masked gunmen stormed into the Colonial Bank Tuesday with an intimidating ultimatum for employees - hand over the cash or be killed.``One of them kept hollering `shoot 'em, shoot 'em,' '' Mount Dora police investigator Guy Dailey said.Dailey said four men rushed into the back door of the bank branch on Donnelly Avenue just before 3 p.m. Each held a handgun. They forced four employees and one customer face down on the floor before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash.The bank robbers wore ski masks and dark clothes.

Colonial Bank plans to expand its local branch network this year for the first time since a major 2005 acquisition made it the fourth-largest bank in Central Florida, company officials said Monday. The Alabama-based bank is already at work on two branches, to open by mid-year in the Waterford Lakes area of east Orange and the Windermere area in southwest Orange. Colonial expects to open additional branches in the region next year, a sign that the historically conservative bank wants to extend its reach in Central Florida.

Signs for Colonial Bank began going up at eight locations in Central Florida last week.Colonial BancGroup, a $4 billion financial institution based in Montgomery, Ala., completed a stock swap to acquire Southern Bank of Central Florida. The deal was valued at about $54 million.Customers of Southern Bank will notice a few changes in the coming weeks because of the ownership change. The bank is planning to install automated-teller machines at five of its locations - in Kissimmee, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Lake Mary and Winter Park.

Former Colonial Bank executive Catherine "Cathie" Kissick of Orlando has pleaded guilty to her role in covering up one of the biggest frauds of the nationwide mortgage crisis. The former head of now-defunct Colonial's mortgage-lending division in Orlando pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to commit fraud in what authorities described as a more than billion-dollar scheme involving the Alabama-based bank and Ocala-based Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. Kissick, 50, faces a sentence of as much as 30 years in prison.

Federal regulators have ordered Orlando-based Seaside National Bank to pare its stake in tens of millions of dollars of home loans it acquired from the now-bankrupt mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, under the terms of a recent regulatory action. Seaside's exposure to the potentially risky loans was one of several issues that triggered a regulatory agreement last month between the bank and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Seaside officials said Tuesday the bank already has made big strides in divesting itself of the Taylor, Bean portfolio and resolving the other issues raised by regulators during a routine exam nearly 10 months ago. "All this dates back to last summer's review — so it's like a looking-in-the-rear-view-mirror-type thing," Seaside chief executive Gideon Haymaker said.

The former chairman of Ocala-based Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. has been indicted on charges of orchestrating a nearly $2 billion mortgage-fraud conspiracy, less than a year after his company collapsed and took a major Southeastern U.S. bank with it. According to court documents released Wednesday, Lee B. Farkas and unnamed partners schemed to misappropriate $400 million from Colonial Bank's Orlando-based mortgage-finance division and...

The owner of multi-million-dollar yacht that went up in flames Saturday at a Daytona Beach yacht club was identified by police today as music industry executive Patrick J. Armstrong of Altamonte Springs. Armstrong, 63, told police he was asleep aboard the Princess Lauren, a 71-foot motor yacht, about 7 a.m. when he was awakened by a loud noise that came from inside a closet, according to a police report. He said when he opened the closet, it was filled with smoke. He ran to the boat's front cabin and awakened Robert Martino, 58. The two left the vessel and called for help, police said.

Two big regional banks that have major presences in Central Florida reported widely varying fourth-quarter results Friday. Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. -- the largest bank in Central Florida -- narrowed its fourth-quarter loss to $316.4 million, or 64 cents a share, down 15 percent from a loss of $374.9 million, or $1.07 a share, in the 2008 quarter. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corp., the region's fourth-largest bank, earned $185 million, or 27 cents a share, down 36 percent from $284 million, or 51 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

The latest wave of U.S. bank failures hit close to home when Panama City-based Peoples First Community Bank was among those to close. With seven branches and deposits of nearly $280 million in Central Florida, Peoples First was the 27th-largest out of nearly 70 banks operating in the region. It was the biggest fallout in Central Florida from a bank failure since Alabama-based Colonial Bank's demise in August. Colonial was the fourth-largest bank in the region; BB&T Corp. acquired most of Colonial's assets.

When the North Carolina bank giant BB&T Corp. agreed to acquire the assets and branches of troubled Colonial Bank in August, it marked a significant chapter in Lake County's banking history. It was only four years ago that Colonial Bank, an Alabama-based banking titan, acquired Leesburg-based First Federal Savings Bank of Lake County. It was a cash-stock deal worth $232 million, and for good reason. In 2005, First Federal had a dozen or so branches in Lake, Sumter, Citrus and Marion counties and was one of the top publicly traded small banks in the United States -- a significant honor for a financial institution that got its start in 1934 as a small savings and loan that focused on customer service and a homey feel.

SunTrust Banks Inc. has tightened its grip on Central Florida's banking market during the past year, while BB&T Corp. rose dramatically in the rankings and some other big players fell, according to new deposit figures released Monday by the federal government. Atlanta-based SunTrust solidified its No. 1 ranking in the region with an 11 percent boost in customer deposits, to nearly $10.5 billion, during the 12 months that ended June 30, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported in its annual market-share data.